Goin down to The Winco

My grocery bill has been out of control. When we were figuring how much we could afford to move up and still live below the golden handcuff threshold, I discovered how much I was spending each month on food. I don’t know what’s normal for a family of three, but this seemed a bit abnormally high and made my inner tightwad cringe. I realize I’ve been a bit of a grocery store snob, spending more at Safeway because it was a “nicer” store and I knew where everything was.

For the past few months I’ve been trying to do a better job at meal planning and doing a big shop every two weeks to limit the “can’t get out the store for under $50 bucks” quick trips to the store.

I’ve been having good grocery bill luck at Winco Foods. Rather, I feel I should say “The Winco” because it’s the kind of store where people probably put a capital “the” where there really isn’t one. Like “The Walmart” or “The K-mart.” The Winco ain’t fancy. It’s not a club store, but I don’t know what to compare it to. Maybe a Cash and Carry. They basically cut open packing boxes of goods, and let the shoppers have at it. There is actually a decent selection of fresh items (fresh pizza dough = toddler fun!) and the produce is less bruised because it is barely handled by the stockboys. You do get to wrestle elbow to elbow over the bulk garlic with ladies wearing mint green house coat/sweats combos and shove your cart past clustered (Here, let me move your cart a skotch so I can squeak by! Thaaanks.) families of five pondering the merits of all bean vs meaty chili. You also have to bag your own groceries.

I am actually thrilled to bag my own groceries. I have a little issue when it comes to grocery bagging. Save the “An issue? No shit.” comment Russ Anonymous. When I unload my cart, I group things in the order I want them bagged – this makes unloading easier. Frozen goods with frozen. Produce with produce. Cans with cans, and so on. (This makes sense right? I’m not the only one with this issue, am I?) Then I have to look on in horror as the bag boy throws my scheme all to hell when he tosses things all willy nilly into bags. Bread on the bottom? ARE YOU SMOKING CRACK!!

Ah, but the self-bagging station at The Winco lets me express my grocery OCD in peace. I saved a hundred bucks today. I know because I had priced my list online at Safeway thinking I would have it delivered. My inner tightwad feels vindicated after all the coin we’ve been throwing around after our move.

Colin was my copilot today. He loves places like The Winco. His huggy-heart battery gets charged full. He grabbed a ladies furry hood before I could stop him. She turned with a furrowed brow and her frown turned upside down at his big grin. He says hi to everybody, and most people say hi back. He smiles. I smile. They smile. It’s a regular glad fest! And if they don’t say hi back? He keeps yelling, “hi!”…”Hi!”…”HIIII!!!” until they do. That’s my boy. Persistent in getting the answer he wants – wearing a smile the whole time.